The story of Tracy Barnes sacrificing her Olympic spot for her twin sister, Lanny, is quickly making the rounds, and today they go nationwide with multiple television appearances.
They will appear live today on NBC’s “Today” show in the 7:30 to 8 a.m. block, the twin biathletes from Durango said in an email Wednesday morning. Tracy will be in the studio, and Lanny will connect by Skype from Italy, where she is training in preparation for the Winter Olympics, which begin Feb. 7 in Sochi, Russia.
At 6:40 a.m. (Durango time) they will be on CNN’s “New Day.” Tracy again will be in the studio, and Lanny will be connected with a broadcast crew in Italy.
At 10:30 a.m. (Durango time) Tracy is scheduled to appear on NBC Sports’ “Sports Dash.” She will be in the studio.
Lanny Barnes, an Olympian in 2006 and 2010, was sick during the final series of qualifying races last weekend and did not compete. Tracy had a good weekend and was named to the U.S. team. But Tracy, knowing that Lanny was having an excellent season and wanting to do something special for her twin sister, declined her Olympic spot. It left the door open for Lanny to take the women’s team’s fifth spot.
“I finally felt that my season was starting to come around,” Tracy Barnes wrote Monday night in an email to the Herald. “However, this decision was more important to me than finding out how I would end up doing.
“My decision was based on the fact that I care enough about Lanny to even give up my dreams so that she can realize hers.”
The story, which first appeared on the Herald’s website Monday, has been featured in newspapers and on websites based around the country and beyond – at least as far as England, where it appeared in the Daily Mail’s online site.
johnp@durangoherald.com
